Another week, another edition of the weekly #histSTM links list Whewell’s Gazette bringing you as much of the histories of science, Technology and medicine out of the depths of cyberspace as you could read in a month of Sundays.

For me one of the principle functions of #histSTM is #scicomm. That is using the histories of the various disciplines to try and communicate their function, importance, relevance or whatever. One of the greatest communicators of science who ever lived is without any doubt whatsoever David Attenborough, who turned ninety on Sunday 8 May 2016.

I very much doubt if there are many British* scientists, science communicators, science journalists, historians of science or just fans of science, for that matter, who were not touched, moved, motivated, fascinated, educated, inspired or sometimes even totally floored by one or other of the multitude of science programmes that Attenborough has made over the last almost seventy years. *(This is probably true of lots of other countries too, but I don’t know how much of Attenborough’s work has been broadcast in any other countries. I do know that there are Wikipedia article on him in lots of different languages!) Attenborough broadcasts mostly over the natural world but it is safe to say that he himself is a force of nature.

If that wasn’t enough in his role as a manager of the then relatively new BBC 2 television channel Attenborough was responsible for introducing the world to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man, Pot Black (the Snooker World Championship) and The Royal Institution’s Christmas Lectures. Being responsible for those series alone is enough to make him a living legend but this was merely a small side line in his extraordinary live.

Just by existing he last week rescued the British Government from a very sticky situation. Somebody came up with the (not so) bright idea of asking the Internet to choose a name for a new research ship. A journalist in a moment of childish irresponsibility suggested the name Boaty McBoatface! The Internet pounced and by a margin of a zillion to one Boaty McBoatface won the popular vote. Enter stern Conservative Government Minister, “We are NOT going to name a mega-million pound research vessel Boaty McBoatface!” The Internet fumed! Then came the Solomonic decision, the vessel will be named “Sir David Attenborough”. To protest against this decision would have been sacrilege.

The Internet is full of birthday tributes to the great man of which I have only included a small random selection below. If you read or look at nothing else you should look at the three BBC One web exclusive Youtube videos at the end of the list, they are made in co-operation with Aardman! However in honour of his ninetieth birthday I dedicate this edition of Whewell’s Gazette to:

David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough BBC / Sophie Lanfear

“I suppose they would need a bigger ship if they had to paint “Attenborough McAttenboroughface” along the side” – Peter Broks (@peterbroks)